The Federalist: Stunningly Wrong Iowa Pollster, Des Moines Register Face Another Fraud Lawsuit
Once deemed “the ‘it’ pollster of American politics,” J. Ann Selzer and her firm are facing another lawsuit over an exceptionally bad pre-election poll showing Vice President Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump by 3 percentage points — in blood red Iowa.
Trump walloped Harris by 13 points (56% to 43%) on his way to easily winning a second nonconsecutive presidential term a la Grover Cleveland. Critics called into question the motivation of the 16-point “outlier” Iowa poll, conducted by West Des Moines-based Selzer & Co. for the Des Moines Register newspaper published just three days before November’s election.
Trump late last month sued Selzer, her polling firm, the Des Moines Register and its Goliath corporate media parent, Gannett Co. Inc. in Polk County, Iowa, alleging “brazen election interference.” That lawsuit charges that the defendants “and their cohorts in the Democrat Party” hoped that the final Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll of the campaign season “would create a false narrative of inevitability for Harris in the final week of the 2024 Presidential Election.” In short, the complaint charges, the pollster and the paper violated Iowa’s Consumer Fraud Act.
Attorneys for the defendants say they will “vigorously defend the First Amendment.”
They’re on the defense again.
‘Flat-out, Epically, Recklessly Wrong’
On Tuesday, the Center for American Rights (CAR) filed a similar lawsuit, also in Polk County District Court, alleging that “the misleading polling results deceived consumers, distorted public perception, and undermined confidence in the electoral process.” The complaint, filed on behalf of Iowa resident and Des Moines Register subscriber Dennis Donnelly, seeks class action certification on behalf of all subscribers to Iowa’s largest newspaper.
Daniel Suhr, president of CAR, told The Federalist in an interview Tuesday that his public interest law firm’s lawsuit expands on President-elect Trump’s claims “to include damages for subscribers misled by the recklessly published polling.” He said there’s a difference between the media making honest mistakes and being intentionally misleading.